Label Love in Asia

Asia Market Intelligence (AMI) - rebranding as Synovate in January 2003 - has just released the latest figures from the 'Label Love' study on luxury brands in Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore.

Nearly half the respondents across all three markets (45 per cent) demonstrated awareness of one or more luxury brand, with Hong Kong consumers the most aware at 51 per cent.

Of the brand aware respondents, the top-of-mind label across all three markets was Gucci, with 19 per cent mentioning the Italian design house first. When broken down by country, Hong Kong's most recalled brand was Louis Vuitton (30 per cent), Singapore's was Rolex (19 per cent) and Korea's was Gucci (22 per cent).

Jill Telford, Managing Director of AMI Hong Kong, said the aim of the study was to not only track brand awareness, but more importantly to gain insights on buying behaviour and aspirations. 'While it's important to know if LV is loved in Hong Kong, Gucci is God in Korea, and Rolex rules in Singapore - of even greater significance is whether this awareness translates to sales and to assess who is buying what. The savvy luxury goods brand needs to understand their consumers and this study shows that Asia is not one big homogenous market - what works in Seoul may not impress in Singapore and vice versa.'

Despite the economic downturn of recent years, consumers are still making purchases - 14 per cent of all respondents from Hong Kong have purchased one or more luxury brands in the past six months, 15 per cent from Singapore and 12 per cent from Korea. Of the brand aware respondents, these figures increase to 27 per cent for Hong Kong, 34 per cent for Singapore and 28 per cent in Korea.

'Those aware of luxury brands are most likely to be women aged from 25 to 39 and in white collar jobs,' added Ms Telford. 'While the market appears relatively healthy, luxury brands need to assess whether they are optimising their approach to Asian markets'.

The AMI 'Label Love' survey also found counterfeit products caused some consternation amongst respondents with 13 per cent refusing to answer whether or not they had purchased a fake in the past six months - 18 per cent of those surveyed acknowledged a fake purchase and 69 per cent said they had not purchased counterfeits.

A total of 3,073 respondents aged 15-64 were interviewed via the AMI AsiaBUS survey and results were weighted to reflect the population in each market.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

• Synovate Asia Pacific
• All news